Review: Manuela Martelli's 'Chile 76' carves a subtle, captivating character-study

[Judi Lynn]

The narrative follows the life of an upper-class woman in her secretive resistance during troubling times.

By Aditya Sudhakaran on Fri, Jun 2, 2023 at 3:12 pm



Aline Küppenheim plays Carmen in Manuela Martelli’s 'Chile 76.'
The opening minutes of Manuela Martelli’s "Chile 76" give a sense of direct
urgency while an undercurrent of fear and angst grows. Set three years during
a period of political repression and mass torture under the oppressive
Pinochet regime, Martelli’s narrative follows the life of an upper-class woman
in her secretive resistance during troubling times.

Carmen, a middle-aged bourgeois housewife, dressed in royal blue, carries a
strong presence while she selects the perfect combination of pink for her
family’s renovated beach house. She flips through a picturesque travel guide of
European architecture and design until reality points Carmen’s attention
towards the outdoor noise of authorities taking an unnamed man, while the
same shade of pink hauntingly falls slowly onto Carmen’s shoe. These shades
and Mariá Portugal’s acutely shrill score follow us for the rest of the film,
pointing towards an internal conflict between Carmen and unnerving
surroundings of surveillance and unrest.

Confronted by a trustworthy family friend who happens to be a local cleric,
Father Sánchez (Hugo Medina) requests Carmen to help a young priest named
Elías (Nicolás Sepúlveda) whose injurious state remains restrained. Even as
Carmen secretly tends to his injuries, she asks Elías whether he is a common
“criminal,” but after gaining each other’s trust, Carmen considers her valuable
position to aid his cause.

For Carmen, her political and her familial loyalties clash in eerily, imprecise
moments. The excellent work of the actress Aline Küppenheim expresses from
within the tension of the moments in which she feels a certain paranoia around surveillance by the secret police, or her progressive distancing from her own
class bubble that justifies violence from the supposed ignorance of a country
that needs firm hand.

More:
https://www.cltampa.com/arts/review-manuela-martellis-chile-76-carves-a-subtle-captivating-character-study-15743687

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Everyone should know that Richard M. Nixon, with Henry Kissinger, and the C.I.A., etc. were deeply involved in overthrowing the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende, and replacing him with the sadistic, completely corrupt General Augusto Pinochet. It will enable anyone to grasp why there are films which have been released throughout the Americas concerning what has happened when these fascists have gone after any and all suspected dissidents. That part never was covered with any degree of truthfulness whatsoever by the US corporate media, and far too many US citizens still remain completely unaware. So damned sad.

[Judi Lynn]

1. The Pinochet File: How U.S. Politicians, Banks and Corporations Aided Chilean Coup, Dictatorship